#karinastolf

[lccdps2014]

TOAD | Karina Stolf

So last week I finished my last internship of the year :( I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone and we are back at uni in a month!

After I finished interning at City AM, I started at TOAD straight after and was there for the whole sumer. TOAD is a creative agency specialising in web design and development and they have a sister agency called Mother’s Best Child who specialise in video content creation.

While interning there, I worked on a diversity of projects for both companies. Some were a little boring, like creating Power Point presentations for clients and updating brand guidelines, while others were very exciting like designing websites and creating illustration campaigns for well-known charities. As well as doing a lot of design work, I also participated in idea generation and brain storming sessions, so the work was always very varied.

We also got the chance to visit the ITV studios to see the second pilot of ‘The Week That Wasn’t’, which is a comedy show that talks about the news that happened during the week. It involves manipulated video clips that were produced by Mother’s Best Child.

I really enjoyed my time at TOAD and met some amazing people. The guys are all so nice and friendly and I really felt like a part of the team there. It’s only been 3 days since I left, but I already want to be back :(

But now to start on the dissertation research.. yay!

[lccdps2014]

Twinned With... | Karina Stolf

One of the most exciting things that I got to do this year, was to design a cover for Twinned With... It is a book written by Rob-Self Pierson and it’s about his journey around Europe exploring Twin Towns. Rob chose two designers to illustrate his book, one being me - working on the cover, and the other being Frankie (she’s also from LCC, but a year above us) - working on the inside illustrations.

The book was meant to be out in November, but it took such a long time to get all the copy sorted, that I didn’t even start designing up until April.

Anyway, when it was finally launched, we got some amazing feedback. We were mentioned on the Design Week, which was exciting. I also went to the book launch at the London Review Bookshop, and it was amazing seeing so many people buying the book.

[lccdps2014]

City AM | Karina Stolf

Posting this a few weeks late, but anyway.. for the last 3 months I was interning at City AM, which is an independent business newspaper handed around central London. My plan this year was to try out different aspects of graphic design and editorial was definitely on that list.

City AM used a program called Quark instead of InDesign. That was the first time I’ve ever heard of Quark, so I had to learn how to use it very swiftly. To me, Quark is just a really bad version of InDesign and I, like all the designers at City AM, hated it. Once I got to grips with Quark, my task was to create a flat plan for tomorrow’s newspaper. Most of the pages had templates, so it was pretty straight forward. In time, when I was completely confident in using the program, I was put in charge of designing more creative spreads, like Going Out and Property pages, which relatively depended on the pictures. Those spreads were more fun as I could play around with photos and text. I also had the chance to work on some info graphics that went into their two supplement magazines, Money and Bespoke.

One of the more exciting tasks I had at City AM, was to come up with logo concepts for their awards ceremony that they do every year. I spent about a month coming up with different ideas. Can’t show the logo concepts yet, as I don’t know what has been chosen.

At the end of the internship, I decided that editorial design is not for me. I just prefer having more creativity. The design team at City AM were really lovely though. I felt like part of the team instead of being just an intern. They took me out for a good bye lunch and got me a nice present at the end :)